Asean Trading Link goes live

The cross-border trading link being established by a group of seven South East Asian stock exchanges has officially gone live, connecting Bursa Malaysia and Singapore Exchange.

Three years in the planning, the link has been established to provide a single access point to ease cross-border trading and attract more international fund flows into the region.

To date, 31 Brokers from across Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, have already signed up to the initiative, including two of the region's leading investment banks, CIMB and Maybank. Malaysia and Singapore are set to be joined by the Stock Exchange of Thailand next month.

Dato' Tajuddin Atan, CEO of Bursa Malaysia says: "The three markets, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, serve as the foundation of the Asean Trading Link providing a single entry-point access to three of the largest stock markets of the Asean Exchanges collaboration. Jointly these three markets offer nearly 3,000 listed companies with a market capitalisation of USD1.4 trillion. Together they account for some 70% of the total market capitalisation of Asean."

The exchanges have worked with FTSE to provide a range of Asean market data and analytics, while Nyse Euronext's IT unit and SunGard designed and built the technology required for the trading link.

To coincide with the launch, the Asean Exchanges Website is also being enhanced to showcase aggregated content on regional investment opportunities, including a heat map of the top 30 Asean stocks and one-click access to company analysis, market research, and commentary.